May 18-21, 2014

Symposiumpop Navgation

2014 Symposium Highlights

More than 2,000 delegates from 60 countries gathered in Lexington, Kentucky for “What If?” - Alltech’s 30th Annual Alltech International Symposium. Evoking curiosity with its theme, “What If,” the Alltech Symposium focused on the areas of Crop Science, Life Sciences, Africa, Modern Farming, The Algae Opportunity, and Business and Technology – all featuring notable, expert speakers from around the world.

Video of some of the best presentations from each session are now available here:

Opening Plenary Session

Health & Wellness

Africa: Land of Opportunity

Crop Science

Life Sciences

Farm of Tomorrow

The Algae Opportunity

Business & Technology

Closing Plenary Session

Related Blog Posts

Last week I was invited to attend the Alltech Symposium. Alltech is a global agricultural company that produces a variety of products used in several segments of food production. Other than their beer (which was quite tasty), bourbon, and coffee products, a big portion of what is produced by Alltech is sold to others within agriculture. The average consumer probably doesn’t even know the company exists. So, that got me thinking. When people ask me where I was last week; why I left my kids and my husband for 5 days to attend a symposium hosted by a global agriculture company, what will I tell them? How do I relate what Alltech does to them and their everyday lives?

“The future is in the hands of the young generation,” said Dr. Pearse Lyons, founder and president of Alltech. Dedicated to education for over 30 years, Alltech inspires and fosters young students and scientists through interactive educational experiences and sustainable ideas. For the past five days, the Alltech 30th Annual International Symposium not only attracted over 2,000 professionals from around the world, but also recruited 190 students to participate in its journey of innovation.The event kicked off with a special student welcome dinner on Sunday, May 18 at the Hilton hotel in downtown Lexington.

A presentation from Tim Arthur, Alltech’s global director of MIS, at Alltech’s 30th Symposium gave us an insight into how innovations of today are a direct result of the inventions of the past. Our future improve as the inventions of the past become affordable today. Technology will continue to become more powerful and the price will decrease. As the price decreases, technologies will become more affordable and become part of our daily lives.

In order to feed the predicted population apex of 9 billion people by 2050, we must increase our ag yield by 20 to 30 percent, said Becky Timmons, Alltech’s global director of applications research and quality assurance, at the closing session of the 30th Alltech Symposium. We have two options: We can spread out on more land, which is not possible, or get better yield off the land we have. How can bees and microbes help? Without microbes, there would be no plants or animals. Their biodiversity is significant, and their roles are crucial.